Songs of War
by A'isha Ishtar
Summary: Another alien species resides on Earth, considered just a myth. But one day, some of them wander into the wrong place; now they're fighting two wars. One is their own, and one they should have nothing to do with. OP/OC, Bee/OC, Hide/OC, Screamer/OC
1. Prologue

**Yay! So I got this idea from watching a bunch of "mermaids are real!" videos on the internet, as well as professional "mermaids". I BELIEVE, DO YOU BELIEVE?**

**Anyway, hope you guys enjoy! This is just the prologue... we're just getting started, peeps.**

* * *

_Ever wanna just stop?_

_Do you wanna surrender-_

_Or fight for victory?_

_Here we are at the start_

_I can feel the beating of our hearts_

_Here we are at the start_

_Darkness falls_

_Here comes the rain_

_To wash away the past and the names_

_Darkness falls_

_Here comes the rain_

_To end it all, the blood and the game_

_Far, far away_

_In a land that time can't change_

_Long, long ago_

_In a place of hearts and ghosts_

_Far, far away_

_In a land that time can't change_

_Long, long ago_

_In a place of hearts and ghosts_

_This is a call to arms_

_Gather soldiers_

_Time to go to war_

_This is a battle song_

_Brothers and sisters_

_Time to go to war_

_This is a call to arms_

_We own the night_

_This is a battle song_

_We own the night_

_(Here we are at the start...)_

_~"Vox Populi", 30 Seconds to Mars_

* * *

Amaris sped through the waters, flipping her tail constantly and holding her arms to her sides for more streamlining. She was looking back periodically, checking for the Siren who was tailing her. Knowing that coward, though, she'd probably fight dirty and resort to tricks.

She'd been attacked by the Sirens' leader before. Namera saw her as an easy target, since she was young, naive, and took some risks. It was like a shark playing with its food, even though the food wasn't guaranteed. She'd never let Namera catch her for good, and she didn't see why she ought to start now.

"_Come out, come out, little fishy~_" the Siren's demonic but hypnotic voice called out, echoing through the waterways and surrounding Amaris from everywhere. "Not afraid, are you? We've done this before. No reason to be _scared_**,** you little guppy! You know what's coming!"

Amaris propelled herself faster, flapping her tailfin and corkscrewing through the infinite blueness. Once she straightened herself out, she spotted what looked like the remains of an Earthling shipwreck and darted inside a hole in the rotting ship.

She could peek out and see what Namera was up to. The Siren had sprouted her legs in place of her tail and was wildly looking around, half naked, her blonde hair floating around her and wanting to go up as her wide, evil eyes looked for the Mermaid she'd lost. "Come on, you little _baby!_" she shrieked, true to her nature, though it wasn't sweet or seductive at the moment. "I know you're here somewhere! I can _smell_ you, and you smell like _fear!_"

After a few tense seconds, with Namera's hands tightened into fists and Amaris's heart beating against her ribcage, the Siren snarled and screeched, sending sonar waves only her pet could hear. And indeed, after not five more seconds, a fearsome great white shark, native to Earth and quick to pledge its allegiance - and teeth - to the greater evil, swam up beside its mistress.

Namera grasped its dorsal fin with both hands and pressed her body close to the rough sharkskin, eyes narrowing as she bared her sharp teeth. "Let's circle around, Razor. We're going to find that little guppy this time."

With an apparent smirk from the intimidating animal, they were off, buzzing slowly about the wreck, as a sentry would about a bridge he was guarding.

Amaris pressed herself to the wood in the hull of the broken ship, taking deep breaths to try and calm herself back down. She closed her eyes and let out a few shuddery breaths, trying to relax. If she could slip through while Namera and Razor the brainless killing machine were on the other side, she could get back to the heart of the Mermaid Kingdom and tell Rikki about her latest escape from the Siren queen's clutches.

"Hey! Who are we hidin' from?"

"Aaagh!" Amaris spun around to see the dark-auburn-haired princess she'd just been thinking about sitting atop an obviously empty treasure chest. "W-What are you _doing_ here, Rikki?"

As usual, she wasn't even wearing her tiara. "Oh, nothing. This is my secret hideout. For when I need to get away from the court."

The blonde rolled her eyes. The court - Rikki was always complaining about the court. Sure, they'd been kind enough to take her in when her parents were swept away in the tide - they'd even taught her to be a princess, though she didn't always take it to heart. But according to said princess, they were stifling and bossy. "This far out?"

Rikki winked. "This way they can't find me."

Amaris shook her head. "Well, be quiet, will you? There's going to be someone _else_ finding us if we don't keep our mouths shut."

Rikki groaned. "Don't tell me _Namera's_ out there? With that dumb shark whose only purpose in life is to eat anything that moves?"

"Shhh!" Amaris swam over to the opening in the hull, peeping out into the waters to see any sign of Namera. "Can you call some fish?"

"Sure." Rikki casually lolled her head back, and opened her mouth. She held out one note, somewhere between low and high, a steady vibration that traveled fast through the water. Not very long after, a school of fish came drifting toward the ship, close to Amaris. One of them got close to the young soldier's face and blew out a couple of bubbles.

Amaris nodded. "Yes! I just need to blend in and hide with you guys so I can fool Namera and get away."

"What about _me?_" Rikki pouted, jetting over and swirling the water around her tailfin in an annoyed manner.

"You just stay here till I come back and tell you the coast is clear."

"Ama-"

"Or would you rather summon the court and have _them_ come pick you up?"

Rikki shut her mouth and sunk back down onto the treasure chest. "Fine. But I'm watching."

"Ugh, just don't let Namera see you. She'll figure it out and debone both of us."

"She'll have us for dinner with her tea. Cannibal."

"Exactly. So shut up, and stay hidden till I come back." Amaris reached up toward the one fish, poking her top half out and looking from side to side to make sure Namera hadn't come back. She was nowhere in sight; she'd moved to the back already. She really WAS going slower than normal. She nodded to the fish, then wriggled herself out of the hull and darted in between them. Their color was the same as the main scales of her tail, but they had to move fast; her skin was a different color than her tail, and she wouldn't be able to blend in for long.

"Go, go, go, go, go, go, go," she whispered, gently flapping her fin up and down while carefully holding her arms to her sides, trying to move as little as possible to keep the illusion.

They were moving at a steady pace, until something glinted and caught Amaris's eye. She turned toward it, and sent a few thrusts in that direction, trying to get closer. She knew she had to get away from Namera, but there was something strange about this thing, almost... alien. Almost like them - just a bit too different from human.

As she did get closer, she could see that it was some kind of metal, and black, but it reflected what little light reached down here. She could see that what looked like its face was covered with seaweed, algae, coral-forming polyps and discarded shells. To her, it looked almost like... a citizen of that robot planet, the one Rikki had told her about visiting a long time ago. It had been far away from their planet - of course, that was back when they _had_ a planet. So... years ago.

"This way," she muttered to the fish, swimming a little closer to it. "I just wanna have a look," she added when a couple of them appeared to protest.

Just when she was about to get closer and examine it fully, a splash startled her and she quickly backflipped away, the fish clustering heavily around her. She parted a few, a spot big enough for only her eyes. The splash had clearly been made by more of the robotic beings, some smaller ones. One of them crawled off of another, and onto the one she'd been looking at before - the obviously dead one.

After a moment of musing, the one on top of the dead robot looked back at "his" troupe. "We need parts," he commanded. "Kill ze little one!"

Amaris tried to turn away or close her eyes, but she couldn't look from the sight as the robots tore apart the littlest one in the group. Then the one who'd said that produced a large sliver of... _something._ From where, she didn't know, but he was scurrying up to what looked like the dead robot's chest. The smaller one's large eyes focused, and he held up whatever it was. "Ze shard make energon!" And plunged it into the dead one's chest.

Amaris blinked fast, her mind not able to comprehend any of this. Shard? Shard of _what,_ exactly? And what the kelp was energon?

Regardless, what seemed like a blue shock passed through the black one's body, and to her amazement it stood up, rocking forward and grasping the sea floor for balance. This one was male too, it was clear from his face. He nodded to the others, and they all shot up, spiraling toward the surface.

Amaris made a stupid move. She was curious, so she left the fish and propelled herself upward, staring at the shadow above her to follow it. If she hurried, she could catch up to him... maybe he knew of Marinia, and if anything was left of what used to be their home.

"_There you are, guppy!_" All of a sudden, sharp nails dug into her tail and she was pulled downward. "_Did you really think you could get away?_" Namera's voice, currently grating and imperious, filled her ears, blocking out anything she may have been able to get from anywhere else.

Rikki saw what was happening, and swam out to try and help. "Amaris!"

Before either Rikki could reach the pair or Namera could pull Amaris down to the depths, suddenly a wide net was dropped around the two Mariners. They were tangled in each other, and tangled in the rope webbing of the net. "Let go of me!" Namera shouted, swimming up to the top of the net and attempting to cut through it with her claws.

Amaris was struggling to get free, as some of the rope had wrapped tightly around her tail. "Rikki, help!" she cried. "I'm stuck!"

Rikki hurried over, but she could see there wasn't anything she could do. She shook her head and swam backward. "I'll summon the court!" Jetting away, she began to emit a loud, high note.

Amaris couldn't think. All she could do was twist and turn, and none of it was helping her, and the humans were pulling the net up.

* * *

Namera figured her only chance of survival was to trick the humans who'd caught them. She didn't care what happened to the brat, but if those beings she'd seen were what she thought they were, she had to escape and catch up to them. An alliance with them would all but ensure a Siren victory.

She closed her eyes, let her body go limp, and pretended to be unconscious as one of the humans lifted her up into the ship. Judging by the noise, she wasn't on any ordinary, dinky little ship. This was a human military vessel.

"What should I do with this one, sir?" Her hair was being pushed from her face, the idiot humans must have truly wanted to see her features. "She's not awake like the other one."

"She's got legs," another voice answered. "She might just be some random diver, she might not be like the other one."

Well, if they wanted to see her true form, who was she to deny?

She made an awful gasping sound that would hopefully disturb the humans - make them think she would die without the water. It worked, and she shot her eyes open, exposing her teeth as the human picked her up. She catapulted off his arms, and jumped over the side of the ship, grabbing his leg as she went.

She dragged him under for a minute, and considered returning him. But no, that wouldn't be enough of a warning. She got close to his face, sucked out any of his ability to swim, and pushed him down, then swam the other way. She didn't care if he died from the pressure, or from lack of air, or from inhaling water, or if he hit his head on a rock. After about five minutes, the rest of those imbeciles on the ship would understand that he wasn't coming up - she just needed to show them what happened when humans meddled in the affairs of the Sirens.

After traveling some distance, fast like a bullet through the water, she surfaced. Yes, she was far away from the stupid humans now. She spread her arms and shot herself out of the water, sprouting her wings. Flapping upward, she didn't even need to move her legs. This was the direction they'd gone in.

She passed through Earth's atmosphere, up to the empty vacuum of space. There wasn't even any air here, but luckily her specialized lungs could go hours without. Maybe not days, but this wouldn't take long.

The remains of a spacecraft, the one recognizable as the Cybertronian _Nemesis,_ was obviously where they made the base. It was a ship for the more... _intelligent_, should she call it, of the race. An opening was visible, and at the moment quite a bit of yelling was audible through it.

She darted inside and did a few flips, landing behind the one she'd seen. He was holding another up against a wall of what looked like egg cases, but smaller versions of these mechs were crawling out of the broken ones.

Almost immediately the room was silenced, and the two mechs looked back at her. She returned the stare, and stood up, taking a few steps toward them. "I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?"

The larger mech dropped the winged one, who fell to the ground but quickly got up. "Just his daily punishment," the large one growled. "I've got a lot to catch up on - isn't that right, _Starscream?_" He eyed the other.

"Ah, yes, well-"

"Who _are_ you?" the large one took over before this Starscream could finish whatever he'd been trying to say.

She drew her wings back into her skin, and flicked her wet hair. "I am Namera Sting, leader of the Sirens. You must have heard of us. We are Mariners."

"Of the planet Marinia, my lord," Starscream added, though it just earned him another glare.

"Marinia." After giving said glare, the large one scanned Namera with his red optics. "Wasn't that planet destroyed eons ago?"

Namera bore her teeth in a haughty smirk. "Ah, so I've made history then, if _you_ know of it. Your planet was practically on the edge of the two Great Galaxies... so far from us."

He raised an eye ridge, but continued to look at her. "Then _you_ must know, Namera, that I am Megatron, and I lead the Decepticons." His optics flickered to the other, and he vented. "My Air Commander, Starscream, but I don't know where the rest of his useless trine is."

"A _Seeker?_" Namera snickered. "Aren't they rare nowadays? How did you come across one?"

Megatron ignored her query. "So you've been living on Earth."

"For _millennia,_" she hissed. "The Earth's ancient Greeks, and the Romans, they told stories of the wicked bird woman who sat on rocks in the sea, calling sailors to their deaths with her irresistible voice. And that? That was _me_. If I told you how many irritating young men' deaths I've truly caused, it would disturb you and make you incapable of_ sleep._"

Starscream looked a bit unnerved by that, but Megatron didn't seem impressed. "So, then - why are you _here?_"

A new voice joined the conversation. "Namera... you are truly ridiculous."

She spun to see an old friend-or-enemy, known as the Fallen, in what appeared to be some sort of system. "Well, look at _you,_" she sneered, walking closer. "What is this nonsense? Life support?"

"Have you grown weak over the ages?" he snapped, not bothering to answer her question. "You were the most powerful Mariner. Why are you here asking for _our_ help?"

Namera snarled. "You old fool. There are more Mermaids than Sirens. If you-" She looked at Megatron instead of the Fallen. "If you help us, this will be over with quickly and all those troublesome Mermaids will either be killed or transformed into Sirens."

Megatron crossed his arms over his chestplates. "This sounds more like us working for you. We obey no one."

She shook her head. "Listen to you. You're in the middle of a war too, aren't you? I doubt all that political unrest on Cybertron however long ago was resolved peacefully. It never is. And you've fled to Earth as a battleground. So have we. You do this for us... we will be in your service as well. We'll treat it like one big war. You demolish the Mermaids, and we'll drive your enemies insane."

"Forgive my saying so, but you look like a human. You're just as tiny and just as ugly. What could _you_ do to the Autobots?"

Again came her teeth. "Did you not listen to anything I've said? I sing, and there are a few things that can happen. One, my voice drives them insane and shuts down their processors. Two, they follow my voice and I lure them into a trap. Or three, the vibrations from my voice crack their spark chambers and... well, you know what would happen then, hmm?"

_Now_ he looked interested. "I see. How very... fascinating." He smirked. "I'd have _three_ options to offline Optimus." He reached down and picked her up, bringing her close to his face. "My pet, it seems we have a deal. Have you any way of making it official, so to speak?"

"Yes. But I shall not seal it with you." Her wings jutted from her arms, and she soared over to Starscream, landing on his shoulder. "I seal it with Starscream. Come, mech of the air, to the seas." She produced a shrieking note, and all of a sudden the Seeker was in dark-haired holoform.

In seconds they had plunged into Earth's oceans, and a splash confirmed their presence. Starscream was clearly confused, looking around to try and figure out what was happening, but Namera was totally in control of the situation. She did a few strokes with her arms and legs, floating over to the Decepticon's holoform. She reached over and grasped his cheek with her hand, her long nails piercing into his milky flesh but not drawing blood, and pressed her lips to his.

_The trust is sealed._

_Together, we kill the Mermaids... and the Autobots._

_Let it begin._

* * *

**DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN*five minutes later*NNNNNNNNNNNNN**

**Okay! How y'all likee? You should leave a review 'cause I love reviews!**

**Thanks for reading! ^^**


	2. Chapter 1

**Whee! Sorry bout the wait, originally I was gonna make this longer... but then it would have been TOO long for one chapter. Plus, how freaking awesome was the end? LOL tootin' my own horn here.**

**So, LOL. Have I ever mentioned how much I LOOOOOOOOVE Ironhide? He's da best. And his voice rocks. *holds up sign which says "MARRY ME IRONHIDE"***

**Hide: Uh... no, no thank you. *edge away* *edge away* *RUN***

**Me: Awww... ;( *pouts***

**BTW, pretend, uh... the events of ROTF haven't happened yet. It's been about two weeks, during which Megatron and Namera have been building up and training their armies. (And you'll see what Namera and Screamer have been up to as well later... MWAHAHA.)**

**Well, hope you enjoy!**

* * *

"I saw a mermaid! _I saw a freaking mermaid!_"

These were Sam's first words as he practically jumped out of Bumblebee and in front of the other Autobots. He looked absolutely frazzled, and because some small part of the AllSpark still remained in his mind, his eyes were flashing open and shut and he was just stammering to get his words out.

Ironhide raised an eye ridge. "A... mermaid?"

"Half fish, half girl." Mikaela stepped out of Bumblebee far more calmly than her boyfriend, shutting the door. "I saw her too - we went to the aquarium downtown and-"

"Y-You guys made contact with the Mariners!" Sam was now running up to Optimus and trying to explain everything that was tangled up in his mind with the apparent mermaid and the history of Cybertron. "A really long time ago! T-The planet Marinia-13 - Omega Quadrant - Avidian galaxy! _She's one of them! She's a Mermaid!_"

Bee transformed. _"I don't know what he's talkin' about."_

"Slow down, Sam." Optimus raised a servo. "You said the Mariners? I have read of them, but... the initial contact between us and them must have been before my time. And apparently the literature was even before Bumblebee's."

"They're very secretive," Ratchet spoke up. "If you're with one... well, let's say most of them make it rather clear that they would rather be in the company of their own kind."

"Wasn't their planet blown up or something like that?" Ironhide grunted.

"That explains why they're here, at least," Ratchet offered, shrugging. "They must have traveled here to hide."

"Then one of them got captured," Ironhide added. "Makes sense. They're careless about their curiosity. Don't pay attention till they're in the grasp of the enemy."

Optimus nodded at his soldiers, then looked down at the humans. "Did you talk to her?"

"That's the weird thing," Mikaela commented, stepping in front of Sam, who was trying not to have another freak-out. "She was performing, and when everyone else left, she swam over to us. She was staring at Sam - like she knew who he was."

"Telepathy," Sam muttered. Then he straightened up. "She sent us some kind of - of telepathic message. I don't know what she did, or _how_ she did it, but all I know is outta nowhere, I'm thinkin' thoughts that aren't my own. When _I'm_ thinking in a girl's voice, it can only mean _one_ thing!"

"Is it that human thing where you walk out of a closet?" Ironhide asked, but the smirk on his faceplates said he clearly knew what he was insinuating.

Sam glared. "_No!_ And that's not funny - Bee, stop laughing, it's _not funny._ What other explanation is there for that besides _telepathy?_"

"The Mariners _were_ remembered as having some telepathic abilities in the writings of Cybertron," Ratchet added. "What little we knew of them, anyway. And it seems, by my scans, that your human fiction depicts them as being able to communicate with other sea creatures."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Are you reading _Aquaman_ on the internet?"

"Never mind what I'm looking at-"

"Then you're watching _The Little Mermaid?_"

"That's not of import! What did she tell you?"

"She said she needs help," Mikaela answered, pushing some hair away from her face. "She needs to go home and help defeat the rest of the Sirens - whatever that means."

"The Sirens were one faction of the Mariners, I believe," Ratchet mulled, once again trying to recall whatever it was that he'd read on them. "They would have been the equivalent of the Decepticons. I don't think even one of them visited our planet - if they needed to talk to us, we met with _them_ or we didn't meet at all."

"_They sound scary,"_ was Bee's two cents in the conversation.

Ratchet chuckled. "Yes, it takes a certain, er... how shall I put it... tolerance... to adjust yourself to their ways and presence. Luckily, it doesn't seem like the one you're describing is a Siren. The Sirens can switch between their fins, their wings, and human legs, but the Mermaids are much like those of your Earth lore - they can change their tails and fins to legs, though they can't be out of the water for long periods of time."

"_Just throw 'em overboard!_" a radio clip from Bee cried.

"Oh, Bumblebee, I'm afraid it's not that easy," Ratchet remarked. "Sirens can still swim - in fact, they're even more dangerous under the water than above it. Why do you think their whole planet was effectively an aquarium?"

"Speaking of aquariums," Mikaela sighed, "that Mermaid is pretty much stuck there. She put on this act, but when everyone else left..." She shook her head, apparently deciding to abandon whatever she'd been thinking to say. "I could just tell she didn't like being there."

"They've been _experimenting_ on her," Sam put in, having regained his cool. He paused to put his arm around Mikaela's waist and allow her to lean against his chest before continuing. "They're - They're doing stuff to her that she doesn't want done. She's being poked and - and zapped and just... all kinds of stuff she doesn't want. So technically, rescuing her could be considered stopping abuse."

"What are we _waiting_ for?" Ratchet was clearly eager to go, as the noise from his transformation into the Hummer indicated. "Mariners are an endangered race! They've not been spotted for... well, I'm not sure how long exactly, but let's just say the galaxies have been devoid of them for a while. It must have been millennia since Marinia-13 was destroyed."

"Well, now we know where they ran off to anyway," Ironhide snorted, then transformed as well.

As everyone else seemed pretty much ready to go, they were looking at Optimus to lead them, and Optimus wasn't transformed. He was standing there, looking down at Sam and Mikaela, with an almost blank look in his optics. "_OP?_" Sam called, letting go of Mikaela and walking forward. "You coming, big guy?"

Mikaela followed him. "Optimus, she needs _help._ I know you're not, you know... _naturally_ allies, but... you said you were going to protect us and everything on our planet. Well, they're on our planet, and they need protection - at least _this_ one does."

Optimus vented, finally meeting their eyes. "Sam... Mikaela... if there are Mermaids on your planet... then there must also be Sirens. They came here while their civil war was still in progress, after it already destroyed _their_ planet. What if it still hasn't been resolved? They could easily destroy your planet as they did their own."

Sam snickered. "Come on, Optimus. What are a bunch of little girls with fish tails going to do to _you_ guys?"

"He... has a point," Ratchet muttered. "There are some aspects of the Mariners' voices that are... well... unpredictable."

Mikaela blinked. "Wait... unpredictable _how?_"

"Er... have you ever seen a human break glass by singing a very high note? Yes, well... Mariners' voices can go far beyond that. Hypnotism, energy manipulation, systems overload... they could crack our spark chambers and logically the debris from that would have to go somewhere and... well, you get the idea, don't you?"

"They could _kill_ you?" Mikaela questioned, clearly not believing it.

"The _powerful_ ones could do quite a bit of damage," Ratchet restated. "Most of the Sirens could short-circuit our systems for a while if they did their absolute worst, but their leaders can presumably emit strong vocal waves at a high enough pitch to shatter the glass our chambers are comprised of. And when _that_ happens... well... what goes up must come down, yes?"

"Or what shatters has to find something to stick itself into," Mikaela sighed, "and the nearest thing..."

"The spark itself."

"_We should go,_" Bee spoke up, chirping and shuffling his door-wings. A quick transformation, and the passenger door popped open for Sam and Mikaela.

"I agree." Ratchet drove over to Optimus. "The risk is worth it, and besides we'll have to deal with the humans first - it _is_ their property we'll be entering. Right now, we'll be meeting with the Mermaid. And if we happen to run into any Sirens - well, what's the human expression? 'We'll cross that bridge when we get to it'. Let's roll out, shall we?"

* * *

**Wheeeeee! Yes we shall, Ratchet!**

**Hehe, I lurv Ratchet. So does my mom, so I should probably give myself a kick in the ass and finish that birthday oneshot with her character I promised her... like, six months ago. XD**

**Well, next chapter they will hopefully meet Amaris!**

**Thanks for reading, hope ya liked, and pleeeease leave a nice-o review! ^^**


	3. Chapter 2

**AHAHA. So they finally meet the "freakin' Mermaid!" All my wonderful readers know who she is, but mwahaha now the Autobots know too.**

**Hope y'all enjoy~**

* * *

Arriving at the Atlantis Aquarium certainly wasn't the most pleasant experience any of them had ever had. The ride was a bit long for some of their tastes (Ironhide and Ratchet, though for different reasons), and Bee freaked out when he almost could't find a parking space next to Optimus. He eventually just waited for the red car (it wasn't Mirage, unfortunately, so he still had no excuse to kick the guy's headlights in) to move out of the way. The young woman driving said vehicle seemed rather slagged off though, judging by the glare she sent Sam's way as she pulled out and sped off.

The struggle to get inside the aquarium was not a particularly lengthy or strenuous one, but it was quite annoying - especially to the Autobots. One of the aquarium's workers recognized Mikaela, referring to her as "that girl what upset the mermaid". At which point Sam went off on another tangent about Mariners and "freakin' _Mermaids!_", then the worker, in no uncertain terms, told them all to fuck off. It was all quite nicely resolved when Ironhide showed off his newly upgraded cannons while inviting the human to "eat slag, fleshy".

The ceiling was large enough even for the Autobots to fit inside, but the stares they all got were a bit hard to ignore. They had lost Sam upon entering the building, as he had immediately made a run to find the Mermaid's tank. Ratchet followed him closely, and soon they were upon the container.

It was decorated colorfully, with realistic coral formations and bright pebbles among the sand at the bottom. For a moment the Mermaid in the tank wasn't visible to them. But then there was a slight movement of her neon blue tailfin, and Ratchet was the first to call out, "I see her!"

They were lucky no one else was around at the time, or they wouldn't have been able to do what they were. (That was to say, they were lucky that most workers apparently didn't care about their duties.) The Mermaid swam over in one graceful motion, pressing her hands against the glass. Her wide brown eyes soon located the only female in the group, and her face broke out with a grateful smile. "Mikaela!"

The brunette raised an eyebrow, clearly taken aback by the mention of her name. "You... know my name?"

"I was in your head before!" she grinned. "I know _everything_ about you! Oh, is this your sweet but crazily awkward boyfriend? Two pearls in the same oyster, it looks like. He's quite the catch. Ha... get it, _catch?_"

It was Sam's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Uh, name's Sam Witwicky-"

"Knew that," the Mermaid sang out.

"- And you think I'm _awkward?_" he continued, looking at Mikaela.

Mikaela shot him a coy smile, knowing there probably wasn't even much use of it. "Only _slightly._"

"The Mermaid said _crazily!_"

"But I think it's cute."

"I knew you'd help me!" The aforementioned Mermaid swished her tail happily. "I didn't know your friends were Cybertronian, though. Added bonus."

"A _Mariner,_" Ratchet vented, getting closer to the glass of her tank.

"And a _Cybertronian,_" the creature giggled, feigning a kiss against the tank and clearly taking pleasure in the reaction it elicited. That was, a confused Ratchet. "I just saw one of you a bit ago. That's how I got trapped, in fact."

"Really?" Mikaela pushed past Sam and came up to the tank. "What happened? What one of these guys would have done anything like that?"

_"Don't look at me!"_ Bee instantly chirped.

The Mermaid's dark eyes softened. "It was not any of you, nor do I believe it was entirely on purpose."

"You left your original planet eons ago, didn't you?" Ratchet queried. "And ended up here. In the seas of Earth. Was it one of our faction, even if not who you see here?"

She smiled, but in a forlorn sort of way. "It was not. It was one... who was similar to the Sirens. I would not be surprised if they were working together now."

"The Decepticons?" Optimus spoke up, coming closer to the tank.

She nodded. "Yes! He was in the sea, and I went to get a look. Then others came, and he woke. I tried to follow them out, but... that was when Namera caught up to me."

"Is she one of your friends?" Sam asked.

"Oh! Oh goodness, no. She leads the Sirens."

"The bad ones, right?" Mikaela clarified.

"Yes. I fear she has allied herself and her army with the ones you call Decepticons. If that's the case, then..." She swam away from the glass, to sit on a rock. "The Mermaids, we... we wouldn't stand a chance against such creatures if they came at us. Not if they came all at once, and one of them against one of us isn't a fair fight."

"By allying with the Decepticons, the Sirens have made this our war." Optimus placed one finger against the glass. "Let us all do the same. I am Optimus Prime, and this is my team. First officer Bumblebee, weapons specialist Ironhide, and chief medical officer Ratchet. May we know the name of our new ally?"

The Mermaid smiled warmly before doing an ecstatic backflip in the water of her tank. "Oh, thank you _so much!_ I'm Amaris Fynn, and it's nice to meet you, but it's not really me you have to truly officiate this with. That would be my friend Rikki Shelldon - she's princess of the Mermaid Kingdom."

Ratchet raised an eyebrow ridge. "What of her parents? Surely she couldn't rule the Kingdom only by herself."

"The court guides her, though she's seldom very eager for their advice." Amaris's tail flicked slowly. "And I'm afraid that King Aric and Queen Coventina... they were taken by the Sirens at the beginning of the war, before Marinia-13 had been destroyed."

Mikaela grabbed Sam's arm. "You mean they... they killed her parents?"

Amaris looked down. "We would hope in the opposite direction, of course, but... King Aric was known for his shrewdness. They would have escaped and returned to us before now, if they were alive."

Mikaela allowed Sam to wrap his arms around her, leaning against him. "Oh my God..."

"They're worse than you could imagine... the Sirens. They look like us, but they just lure you in and then they reveal what's really beneath their disguise..." Amaris lowered herself down onto the sand, lying on her back. "And unless I can get out of here and take you to Rikki so she can approve this... they're just going to keep doing whatever they please. And _that_ will destroy Earth, I assure you."

"I think we've come to an agreement," Ironhide stated, ready to draw his guns. "Shall I blast her prison to pieces then?"

"No, no!" Amaris was quickly up again, in front of the glass. "That would be too conspicuous. The humans would stop us before we even reached the door."

"How would _you_ go about it, anyway?" Ironhide snorted. "You don't have legs."

Amaris crossed her arms over her chest, pouting. "You and Kemena would get along _so_ well, combat bot."

"Why you-"

"Ironhide, stop!" Ratchet grabbed Ironhide's servo, preventing him from brandishing his weapons. "What are you doing? She made a friendly suggestion about a new companion for you, that's all! And besides, she can switch to human legs."

"But wouldn't that mean she'd be naked from the waist down? Cybertron's legends have descriptions of Mariners as being beautiful organic women wearing nothing but a couple of seashells over their breasts, sometimes not even that, and some seaweed to cover up their-"

Mikaela promptly smacked her boyfriend over the head before he could finish his detailed _description._ "I think they get it, Sam."

Ratchet shrugged. "Well, yes, technically she would be. Her tail would transform into a pair of legs, and clothes for those legs would not just materialize out of thin air." He frowned. "Humans have such a preoccupied paranoia regarding nudity. It's so odd."

"It's probably because they're ashamed of how they really look," Ironhide snickered.

"Is this going to result in _action_ anytime soon?" Amaris sighed, hitting her tail on the glass.

"If we cannot take you now," Optimus spoke up, "what do you propose we do, Amaris?"

She swam in circles for a moment, then gestured them all closer to the tank, glancing around for any humans. "Come back after night falls. Most of the humans will be gone by then. If you time yourselves right, you may not even have to deal with the night guards. I can transform to escape, but I can't be out of the water for extended periods... and it's a long trip to the ocean."

"I can fill a tank with water and carry you in the back of my alt mode," Ratchet offered, though a bit eagerly. "That should work, yes? And it will give me a chance to learn more about your race."

Amaris laughed, little bubbles shooting out of her mouth. "Oh, I'm sure you'll learn _more_ than you want from Osane when we see her. Couldn't your leader carry me? I sense that his other form is also vast and powerful."

Optimus shifted his optics away from Amaris's tank. "Ratchet is our medical officer. You would be safer with him. He knows much of your species."

Amaris scoffed. "I sincerely doubt both of those statements, but I shall go with him anyway. You were kind enough to agree to this brackish plan in the first place, so I shall do as you wish."

"What about _us?_" Sam complained. "You can't leave me and Mikaela out of the adventure, and _we_ can't breathe underwater."

Amaris tapped her cheek a few times, then snapped her fingers. "I've got just the thing! If you hold seawater in your mouths while I sing, you'll be able to breathe underwater for a... temporary period of time."

"So you're saying we're gonna be freakin' mermaids?"

"_Enough with the 'freakin' meramids'!_" Mikaela hissed, before turning to Amaris. "_How_ temporary?"

"Oh... I think a week or so. But if it wears off, I can always do it more than once." She blinked at them, then did a backwards somersault and came up to the glass, so close she may as well have been making out with it. "Have we got a plan, great Cybertronians? Will you take me back to the sea?"

Optimus leaned down just a little, so that he was face-level with her. "We will get you out of the humans' possession."

The Mermaid's whole face lit up with a smile, and she kissed the glass where the side of Optimus's face would have been. "_Mwah!_ Oh, thank you so much." She glanced down briefly, then looked up and met his optics. "Optimus Prime... I vow to always protect you, even if it costs me my life."

Optimus looked mildly surprised by this, though he simply took a step back. "I... vow the same."

Her look darkened slightly, and she pushed herself away from the glass. "Go and prepare your forces. Once we return to the Mermaid Kingdom, the Sirens and Decepticons will not know what hit them."

* * *

**OOH LOOK Mariner slang that's real words, just like Cybertronian! Translations? (there may have only been one...)**

**Look, I'll even translate some of it into Cybertronian too, if it's possible! Check it:**

**two pearls in the same oyster = soulmates; sparkmates (awwww.)**

**brackish = normally means a mix of saltwater and freshwater, but Mariners use it in the context of "half-baked", like a half-baked plan (lol, or "half-assed", depending on the Mariner's faction and/or personality)**

**OMG. Soo, lots of questions. How exactly are they going to get Amaris out of there? Who are Kemena and Osane?**

**... And I wonder how the DeceptiSirens are doing. Next chapter, let's go check. But you guys, watch my back.**

**Jack Sparrow: *pops up* Isn't it yer front ye be more worried about, mate?**

**Me: *grabs the broom* Away, you drunken pirate! You reek of rum! *chase scene ensues***

**Jack: Oi! Oi! I give! *runs away* It's not worth it!**

**Well, anyway, hope you guys enjoyed, and reviews are looooooove!**


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